Photo by: Reuters
TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – Canadian fertiliser producer Agrium's stock rose 7.46% on the NYSE on Friday after San Francisco-based activist investor ValueAct Capital Management disclosed a 5.7% stake in the Canadian fertiliser giant in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing.
Starting in August, ValueAct amassed about 8.2-million shares, worth about C$409-million.
The fund manager’s disclosure pushed Agrium’s stock up as high as $93.74 apiece, before settling at $92.82 apiece at the afternoon bell, having added $6.44 in value.
Agrium last year fought off activist investor Jana Partners in a drawn-out proxy battle, after Jana sought to break up the company’s retail and fertiliser segments and sell parts of the company.
In the event, Agrium shareholders decided to fully back the incumbent board and not elect any of Jana's five board nominees.
ValueAct did not disclose whether it had any agenda other than investment purposes for its equity position.
Agrium early this month said it expected earnings from continuing operations to be in the range of $0.45 to $0.55 a share for the third quarter, potentially below average analyst expectations of per-share, third-quarter earnings of $0.51 apiece.
Agrium cited plant downtime as it upgraded significant plants at the Vanscoy potash facility, in Saskatchewan, and the Redwater nitrogen facility, in Alberta.
The company added that its broad geographic exposure, its diversified portfolio of inputs for a variety of crops and product growth would largely offset the impact of lower grain prices and lower crop protection product sales that resulted from the excellent growing conditions experienced across the US this summer.
It also expected its Viterra Retail operations to typically see operational losses in the second half of the year.