Yara won't increase Terra offer after CF bid, board member says

Yara International ASA has no plans to raise its offer for fertilizer maker Terra Industries Inc. after a competing bid from Deerfield-based CF Industries Holdings Inc., said Frank Andersen, a member of Yara's board.

CF yesterday proposed paying $4.72 billion in cash and stock for Sioux City, Iowa-based Terra, which on Feb. 15 agreed to accept a $4.1 billion cash offer from Yara, located in Oslo. Yara will await the Terra board's response before commenting further, said spokesman Asle Skredderberget, adding that Andersen was not speaking on the company's behalf.

"We have stated that this is our final offer," Andersen, who represents Yara employees on the board, said today by phone from Glomfjord in northern Norway. "For the time being, there is no indication that there will be any changes to that."

CF has attempted to buy Terra since January 2009 while fending off a hostile bid from Calgary-based Agrium Inc. At stake in the three-way battle was whether Agrium or CF would be the world's second-largest publicly traded maker of nitrogen- based fertilizers after Yara. Terra said yesterday it had received CF's proposal and would make no further comment until its board had completed an evaluation.

"The board of Terra will have to make an evaluation or give a response to the new bid made by CF," Skredderberget said by phone today. "When the Terra board has reached a conclusion, they'll inform us, and then we'll have five working days to give our feedback. In the meantime, we're not going to give any further comments."