(RTTNews) - Thursday, fertilizer maker CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (CF:
News ) announced that it sent a letter to the shareholders of Terra Industries Inc. (TRA:
News ), urging them once again to vote for CF Industries' director nominees.
In the letter, CF Industries said that its offering to buy Terra represents a $40 higher than the share value for each share of Terra common stock. Further, the company said that the offer price is a 40% premium to what CF believes would be the price at which Terra common stock would be trading without takeover speculation.
Further, CF said the shareholders of Terra that their vote is the only way to support its proposal to acquire Terra and create a leader in the global nitrogen fertilizer industry.
CF noted, in the letter, that proxy advisory firm RiskMetrics Group's ISS Governance Services has advised institutional investors, mutual funds and pension funds that rely on them to provide them with recommendations that are in the best interests of stockholders.
CF has launched a fight to unseat Terra's board after its takeover attempts were repeatedly rejected. The company is seeking to replace three members of Terra's board. Terra is scheduled to hold its annual meeting on Friday.
On November 18, Terra issued an open letter to its shareholders, urging not to allow CF Industries Holdings Inc. (CF) to place three of its nominees on the company's board to advance CF's acquisition proposal. The company requested shareholders to re-elect three of its independent directors - Martha Hesse, Dennis McGlone and Chairman, Henry Slack.
On November 1, CF Industries sweetened its offer to $32.00 in cash and 0.1034 of a share of CF common stock for each Terra share, valuing Terra at $40.61 per share or about $4.1 billion. The offer includes the $7.50 per share special dividend declared by Terra. In its offer, CF has included an 80% cash component this time, with only about less than 20% in stock.
Since January 2009, CF Industries has made six separate proposals to acquire Terra, each of which was unanimously rejected by Terra board as not in the best interests of Terra shareholders.
Just as CF is interested in Terra, agricultural nutrients maker Agrium Inc. (AGU:
News ,AGU.TO:
News ), has been approaching CF with revised offers.
Today, Agrium said that stockholders of CF tendered about 30 million shares, or 62% of the total outstanding shares of the company, into its offer of $45.00 in cash and one Agrium common share per CF share. The offer is currently valued at $101.90 per CF share, or a total consideration of about $5.1 billion, based on Agrium's closing share price on Wednesday.
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