Agrium CEO: CF shareholders need to force sale

Agrium Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mike Wilson said his company's bid for CF Industries Holdings Inc. will die unless shareholders at the rival fertilizer producer pressure management to begin negotiations.

Calgary-based Agrium increased the cash portion of its latest offer this week by 14 percent, raising its total bid to about $85.20 a CF share. CF, which said it will "evaluate the revised proposal carefully," has rejected previous Agrium offers as "grossly inadequate" and pursued its own takeover bid for nitrogen-fertilizer maker Terra Industries Inc.

"We could get 100 percent support and CF management may not come to the table unless the shareholders get on top of them," Wilson said today in a telephone interview. "CF shareholders need to say, 'You, management, don't want to do the deal, for whatever reason. We do, so smarten up.'"

Agrium, North America's third-largest fertilizer producer, missed a February deadline to nominate a slate of directors to CF's board. An attempt last month by Agrium to organize a "No Vote" campaign against CF's nominees failed to change CF's stance.

"The board of directors of CF Industries is 100-percent committed to enhancing shareholder value," Chuck Nekvasil, a spokesman for Deerfield, Illinois-based CF, said today by phone.

Agrium rose C$2.24, or 4.3 percent, to C$54.71 at 3:11 p.m. in Toronto Stock Exchange trading. The shares increased 26 percent this year through yesterday.

CF fell 10 cents to $77.03 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Terra, based in Sioux City, Iowa, climbed $1.18, or 4.4 percent, to $28.04 in New York.

Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. and Mosaic Co. are North America's two largest fertilizer producers.