Member Article

US industrial giant completes acquisition of fertiliser company

GrowHow UK, the fertiliser producer with bases in Cheshire and Teesside, has now become a wholly-owned subsidiary of US firm CF Industries, after it bought Yara International’s 50% share in the business for $580million (approximately £371.2 million).

Tony Will, CEO of CF Indtrustries Holdings, believes that GrowHow UK’s operations in Ince and Billingham are a good investment due to the UK’s reliance on imported nitrogen-based fertilisers.

He said: “We know GrowHow well, and expect a mid-teens return profile for the acquisition.

“The purchase of the remaining interest in GrowHow is a continuation of CF Industries’ track record of pursuing shareholder value-creating capital deployment.”

GrowHow is the UK’s largest producer of nitrogen fertiliser.Its head office and main manufacturing site is based at Ince in Cheshire, where 400 staff are currently employed. The site houses an ammonia plant, three nitric acid plants, an ammonium nitrate plant and three NPK fertiliser compound units.

Overall, the Ince and Billingham sites produce approximately 0.8 million tonnes of ammonia, 1.1 million tonnes of ammonium nitrate, and 0.5 million tonnes of NPK compounds.

GrowHow UK was created in 2007 through a merger of Terra Industries and Kemira GrowHow’s UK operations.

CF Industries purchased its 50% stake in GrowHow UK through its purchase of Terra Industries in 2010.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Simon Malia .